Lindsay Fluckiger 0:26
Welcome to Tile Trends by tile club, a woman owned tile company based out of lovely Northern California. We are a 100% online tile store featuring beautifully unique tiles and today we are highlighting our Emporio Baroque blue stone with porcelain tiles right here behind me for those tuning in via YouTube. This podcast keeps you up to date on all the latest tile trends in design and this week, we'll be discussing the biggest Tile Trends for 2023. I'm your host Lindsay Fluckiger and joining us today is our expert guest interior designer Nicole Mackelprang. Nicole is a content creator and full time Digital Marketing Manager. She's married to her amazing husband and they share their home with two lovely golden doodles. Her journey started when she began documenting the building of their home which has since grown into an incredibly large community that Nicole is proud to be part of. Through this platform, Nicole has been able to meet some amazing people, collaborate with incredible brands and give her passions, inspirations and creativity a platform to be shared. She continues to strive each day and creates inspiring content that will help others benefit from her experiences. Nicole's ultimate goal is to be a source of motivation and inspiration for her audience by providing them with the tools they need to create a life they love. Hi Nicole. It's so good to have you here. We are so excited. You're our very first guest speaker on our very first episode of tile trends!
Nicole Mackelprang 2:53
I'm so excited to be here.
Lindsay Fluckiger 2:54
Awesome. We're so glad to have you. So to kick things off, Nicole, can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind your personal design aesthetic?
Nicole Mackelprang 3:04
Yeah, absolutely. So um, growing up, I looked up to my mom a lot because she designed our house and everything was always in order. And so when we got an opportunity to have our own house we really like we're able to kind of just express ourselves. My style has actually changed a lot over the last I don't know two years it went from a really farmhouse style to now it's a little bit more mountain modern, I guess you would say. So, it's really been really fun to just kind of see our home transform based on our personal styles and obviously we have huge influence on you know, social platforms where we see things every single day. So that's kind of been a really big influence on us.
Lindsay Fluckiger 3:44
I love that there are so many wonderful platforms and outlets for us to discover what can work for us and sometimes it can be a lifelong discovery of what your true style is. But speaking of trends and styles we would love to hear a little bit more about what you think are some of the most popular styles right now, especially when it comes to tile.
Unknown Speaker 4:08
Yeah, I think there was a huge phase I would say probably like last year where everyone was sticking with neutrals, just safe colors. And I think things have expanded a lot more in the last, I don't know six months into more bolder colors and people are being a little bit more bold in their homes with their decor. We've taken a route of just adding some darker bold colors, some greens and blues and looking though like looking at those as more neutrals, geometric patterns where you've got your herringbone, your hexagon stuff like that. Big tiles and big colors are kind of in right now.
Lindsay Fluckiger 4:44
So awesome. Yeah, so we definitely live for the big and bold and the bigger and the bolder you go the more expressive you can be with your own personal preferences. So how are people using tiles in unique ways in 2023?
Nicole Mackelprang 5:04
Yeah, I think that what I've been seeing a lot is people using them for accent features in their home. So whether it be on walls, whether it be mostly you know, backsplash is kind of a traditional thing, but I even think like using multiple tiles and bathrooms has been really in and then really just mix matching textures like the amazing like wood textures on tiles are really fun, the marble and just kind of mix matching all of those together. This creates a really unique space in people's homes.
Lindsay Fluckiger 5:33
Oh definitely. Oh, I love that. So what do you think people should keep in mind when selecting materials and colors for their tiles? You mentioned some of the wetlook and marble. What do you think people need to be looking for when they're starting this journey of selecting what material and colors will work for them?
Nicole Mackelprang 5:54
Yeah, I think that it really depends on not only your tastes, but kind of like your lifestyle, like there are some tiles that are more durable than others. So that's something that's super important when choosing colors that don't fade over time. If that's something that you're wanting, like longevity out of your tile. That's a super important touch as well. I love lighter colors usually but I know that like with grout sometimes it gets really dirty. So if I had kids that may not be the choice for me but yeah, looking at just kind of like your lifestyle, your personal style and then also just like durability and your cost I think is the big thing to look at as well.
Lindsay Fluckiger 6:33
Wonderful and as we heard in your bio, you are the happy owner of two wonderful pups and I know that floors can get really dirty as well. We have a 200 pound English Mastiff, so it's really really easy for floors to get dirty. So having a more durable material is for sure something to look at especially when it comes to kids and pets.
Nicole Mackelprang 6:58
Yeah, I think so. And I think like also something to keep in mind is just the installation of it as well like having a reliable installer, whether it be yourself or somebody else I think is key, making sure things are level and making sure things are even you can get more grout and you know all the things so I think that's another thing to really keep in mind as well.
Lindsay Fluckiger 7:19
Definitely something to consider. So let's talk about cost. So you do a lot of your own renovations in your home. That's kind of been your journey showcasing that. What do people need to consider when they're choosing the right tile for their particular budget?
Nicole Mackelprang 7:39
Yeah, for sure. So I think for the biggest thing that we can that we looked at, in our like bar in the basement, as I'll just use that as an example. As we talked about just doing the backsplash I was just doing between the top and the bottom cabinets. And then we really looked at the space and we were like, how can we make this like a real statement and so we ended up going with a smaller tile that was a little bit more affordable so we could cover the entire area from the top of the cabinets to the ceiling. And so I think just that's the first thing we looked at is the space and making sure that we were picking tiles I think a lot of the time like with smaller tiles you end up spending more just depending on the detail where if you look at bigger tiles, they cover more surface area, but we we found a really affordable tile actually with tile cloud that we love. And we were able to really like line it I did notice as well. Something when we looked at cost was individual tiles versus like a mosaic piece. That was a big kind of decision maker for us as well. We knew that it would take a little bit more skill to obviously lay our own individual tiles and this was our first tile job ever. But now that we've done this, I will say and I can attest to this because we did my dad's tile at his house as well and he had mosaics. I love the individual much better. It's way easier to place. Way easier to use spacers so yeah, so that's something that we look at like for the cost and then again with the material so something that is durable. And just to be transparent, right I picked out this tile, I was in love with it. It got to my house and my husband was like, I don't know about that. It's super shiny. It has sparkles in it like when that goes on the wall that's gonna look really girly. And I was like just wait just wait till it's up like just please trust me on this. And we put it up and like the light barely the headset you can't see any of the metallic like, it's just amazing that so yeah, so I know that's not necessarily directly related to class, but we wanted to make sure that we got a good quality product for what we were paying. And to be honest, like with how big that bar kitchen is down there. It costs us about 700 bucks, which is actually really affordable. And that was something that was really important to us.
Lindsay Fluckiger 9:48
Wonderful and it turned out beautifully. We've definitely showcased that on our social media and really enjoyed collaborating with you and your husband on that project.
Nicole Mackelprang 9:58
It was super fun.
Lindsay Fluckiger 9:59
Yeah, so something out interject, since you were mentioning that once it arrived. There was a little bit of skepticism on is this gonna fit? Is it going to be a little too glam? We definitely recommend, you know, making sure that you get a few samples before but I'm so glad that it worked out for you.
Nicole Mackelprang 10:18
Yes, I know. And I honestly wish I would have gotten samples before. I think I knew exactly what I was looking for. And I will say like there was a little bit of hesitation at first when I got it too. So next time I'll definitely order samples but I'm so glad it worked out and even us putting it on the wall like we had some installation. I wouldn't say hiccups but we did and it was a learning thing for us. it was super fun just to like, like trust in ourselves in that project because yeah, I think that was crucial and in the whole like design now we go down there and we're so proud of it because we did ourselves
Lindsay Fluckiger 10:53
Yeah, unexpected surprises. I know we're going a little bit off topic here but just you had you know gorgeous floating shelves. I mean, it wasn't necessarily a simple install. I mean, you guys pull it off beautifully. But you were definitely going for, you know, maybe something that you had, you know, seen on Pinterest or seen other creators use and it was just so beautiful. So can you walk us a little bit through kind of the journey of choosing the design and kind of how it all came together and like even what were some of the hangups that came your way?
Nicole Mackelprang 11:29
Yeah, so one of the biggest designers that I look up to is Shay McGee. Like I love all of her designs. And she uses a lot of the uneven tiles like the very like they all the tiles almost look homemade like that's just kind of like it they're just not they're very imperfect. They're like, they're just they have imperfections to them. There are different sizes and shapes. Like I love that look, and that's kind of the look I was going for and when I was looking at other tile options, the ones that I found were just outrageously expensive and in for that space. I told my husband I can't justify spending this much money in this space down here that we're not living in every day when I'm not even going to spend that on my own kitchen. Right. So that was like the biggest deciding factor for us. And yeah, I think like overall it was really cool to like learn right so we we had our shelves installed before we even had the tile just so we knew kind of where the markings were took those shells off the wall marks and you know, we invested in a tile saw which is well worth it, by the way. And yeah, we really we really just kind of brought it to life and to be honest, we the hiccups we did run into just to be transparent like a big mistake that we made was starting we we started from the left side and instead of working left to right, we just we came we have a window in between and we came up on each side and we're like oh this will magically meet evenly in the middle. It didn't. So that was one of our big mistakes. And so we contemplated for a good hour whether we would take all of it off the wall. And then we were like why don't we shave down each tile by a quarter of an inch or is it actually not even that much? And because these tiles are imperfect, you didn't notice it right? Like it totally kind of went with it. And we had a couple of chipped ones and I was like that's fine. It looks good. It blends in with the thing so that was a blessing in disguise that that worked out but I mean it did scare me for a minute.
Lindsay Fluckiger 13:21
For sure. Oh my goodness. I'm so glad it worked out again. It turned out beautifully if you're not following Nicole run and login and check her out at our lake point farmhouse and we will link everything as well on this podcast so definitely go and check it out. So the tiles I think that you guys went with from tile club were our mallorca white, I believe. And they are an artisan style tile. I believe from Spain, I believe but don't quote me.
Nicole Mackelprang 13:59
I think you're right because we talked about we've been to Spain and we have a lot of souvenirs in our basement from Spain and we were like, Oh, this tile blends in just perfectly so beautiful.
Lindsay Fluckiger 14:08
Oh, I just love that. Okay, so awesome. And I definitely think you brought up a lot of really great points as far as cost. You know, sometimes things may not go as planned or maybe a tile doesn't turn out to be you know what you're thinking so a lot of really great ideas and hopefully shortcuts or at least tips that our listeners out there can follow when they're selecting the title of their dreams for their upcoming renovation. So are there any other rising trends when it comes to tiles that we should be on the lookout for this year?
Nicole Mackelprang 14:42
I definitely think textures are going to be a big thing. I think people love the depth on their walls like accent walls were a huge thing the last two years. I think people are starting to use tiles because there's even a lot of commercial buildings like businesses that are doing the same. So I think that that's like an ongoing home trend that's coming in just like the wood texture tiles stone like slate stuff like that. Just to add some dimension to your walls. That's where you know we would love to add like we would love to redo our master bedroom and incorporate those things. Just because we do feel like we've just got this white, we've got these white walls everywhere, right and so it'll add some dimension add some depth and it'll it'll pair really well with an accent wall that we do in our bedroom.
Lindsay Fluckiger 15:30
So beautiful. One of the products that we've seen just fly off the shelves literally has been our Japandi Wood Slat Tile. It is we can't keep it on the shelves!
Nicole Mackelprang 15:40
I go to buy it out. I'm like we have this we have we did our basement bathroom and we have this beautiful like freestanding tub and I'm like It looks so good behind that and every time I go to find it. I'm like sold out again.
Lindsay Fluckiger 15:56
I will have to put you on our alert list for this. Yes, you know we have a stone look behind me today which is again, our Baroque blue. These are porcelain tiles. So if we're talking about cost effectiveness, it's a lot cheaper than a marble slab which is great plus the durability and they're just beautiful. So more of just the wood and stone texture like you're referring to are blowing up the design space this year for sure.
Nicole Mackelprang 16:24
It's just getting more normalized to to even put tiles on your wall like oh like yes for backsplash that's great but like a lot of people are removing their like builder grade nears and they're completely tiling the entire wall instead of doing necessarily a backsplash. So there's yeah, there's a lot of trends on the horizon.
Lindsay Fluckiger 16:43
Definitely, which is so exciting to see. So Nicole as we wrap things up today. I just wanted to ask you really quickly. Is there any other advice that you would give to our listeners who are considering using tiles in their upcoming projects?
Nicole Mackelprang 16:58
I would say my biggest advice would be just number one. Do your research. I think that was a big piece for us. Like we probably took a month before we chose what tile we were using and where we were going to put it and we tried to make it as simple as possible for our first tile job. So that was something like we didn't want to rush into it. It was a big statement piece in our basement that we wanted to take our time on. And that leads me to the next one is just taking your time like you don't need to rush through picking a tile and I know a lot of people sometimes maybe do because they're in a home and the builder needs to know or anything like that. But really do the research and know what you want ahead of time because I think it'll allow you to be a little bit more educational when going into that decision.
Lindsay Fluckiger 17:41
Awesome. I love that so much. Thank you so much. And thanks for joining us today Nicole and sharing all of your insights, on trends to shopping to budgeting for tile and what to kind of prep for and what to expect. We really appreciate having you here on our very first episode of tile trends
Nicole Mackelprang 17:58
absolutely thank you for having me.
Lindsay Fluckiger 18:02
And that wraps up this episode of tile trends. Be sure to tune in to the next episode, where we'll be discussing installation tips and tricks for all of our DIY errs tuning in until then happy tiling.
